• Typically these areas are designated because they have natural, agricultural, forestry, scenic and cultural/historic elements that are of high value to the locality. The Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously Aug. 6 to request the Maryland Department of Natural Resources allow the county to add 12,601 acres to … Maryland's Rural Legacy Areas The Rural Legacy Program was created in 1997 to protect large, contiguous tracts of Maryland's most precious cultural and natural resource lands through grants made to local applicants. Maryland’s Rural Legacy Program provides funding to: • preserve large, contiguous tracts of land and • enhance natural resource, agricultural, forestry and environmental protection while • support a sustainable land base for natural resource based industries. agricultural, forestry and environmental protection while supporting By working with Rural Legacy sponsors, the program provides funding for the acquisition of easements and fee simple ownership of land to protect the natural, agricultural, forestry, and environmental resources within the locally designated Rural Legacy Areas. Working through local government and private land trust … The Board of Public Works today approved 16 Rural Legacy Program grants – totaling over $25 million – that will provide dedicated state funding to permanently protect working farms and forests in designated areas across the state.. The Huntersville Rural Legacy Area will receive $1,474,971, and the Mattapany Rural Legacy Area has been awarded a grant of $771,543. a sustainable land base for natural resource based industries. Charles County’s first Rural Legacy Area, the Zekiah Watershed Rural Legacy Area, was established in 1998 and is noted by the Smithsonian Institution to be one of the most important ecological areas on the East Coast because of its unique and robust natural hardwood swamp. The Rural Legacy Program is part of Gov. More than 43 percent of the 42,887-acre Area … The meeting can be accessed at the following link: https://meet.google.com/rjx-aghs-pos, There is at least one Rural Legacy Area in every county of the state and the total acreage designated in all Rural Legacy Areas is 920,694 acres.​​. The two St. Mary’s areas are among 17 in the state receiving funding. Two areas in St. Mary’s County will receive Rural Legacy grants from the state of Maryland. The Rural Legacy Areas file was created as a resource protection-planning tool to assist the Rural Legacy staff in their easement review process. Sign in with your username (email address) and password. has dedicated over $305.6 million to preserve 86,103 acres of valuable farmland, forests, and natural areas. The Rural Legacy Areas file is a digital, polygon layer showing Maryland’s designated Rural Legacy areas. - The Charles County Commissioners wish to announce that applications to participate in the Rural Legacy Program for the Zekiah Rural Legacy Area will … our remaining countryside. The Rural Legacy Areas file is a digital, polygon layer showing Maryland’s designated Rural Legacy areas. … contiguous tracts of land and to enhance natural resource, The Charles County Commissioners wish to announce that applications to participate in the Rural Legacy Program for the Zekiah Rural Legacy Area will be accepted during the month of February 2021. • The local government works with the Dept. land trusts to work together and determine how best to protect their State approved Rural Legacy areas in Baltimore County include Coastal, Gunpowder, Long Green, Manor, and Piney Run. An innovative public-private partnership permanently protected 233 acres located in the Nanticoke Rural Legacy Area, conserving forests, productive farmland, and wetlands. Visit Maryland DNR's GeoSpatial Data download site. Conservation Lands and Preserves, Agricultural dataset current as of 2008. The The Board of Public Works today approved Rural Legacy Program grants totaling $2.1 million that will provide dedicated state funding to permanently protect working farms and forests, and provide vegetative stream buffers to improve water quality and bolster climate resilience in designated areas across the state. The Charles County Commissioners wish to announce that applications to participate in the Rural Legacy Program for the Zekiah Rural Legacy Area will be accepted during the month of February 2021. With the Board of Public Works’ approval of five new conservation easements, Maryland’s Rural Legacy Program has now conserved more than 100,000 acres of land throughout the state. Area soils are well-drained and require little additional nutrients or irrigation. The rolling landscape supports working family farmers, dairy herds, and crops of corn, soybeans, wheat and small grains. The program encourages local governments and An RLA designation works similarly to other types of preservation designations like Priority Preservation Areas. vital working landscapes. – An innovative public-private partnership permanently protected 233 acres located in the Nanticoke Rural Legacy Area, conserving forests, productive farmland, and wetlands. Call toll-free in *Maryland* at 1-877-620-8DNR (8367). The county is proposing increasing the Rural Legacy area in South County from 44,270 acres to 56,683 acres. Unlike some of the other land preservation programs, the focus isn’t exclusively on farmland. The Mattapany Rural Legacy Area runs south of NAS Patuxent River along the Chesapeake Bay. Rural legacy area designations provide local governments and private land trusts with an additional source of funds with which to purchase conservation easements from property owners. Under this arrangement, an installment purchase agreement is entered into with a landowner to buy conservation easements, whereby the Rural Legacy Sponsor or the RLB would pay interest-only payments annually or semi-annually for a period of years and the balloon principal payment would be postponed until the end of the period, i.e., 30 years. What is the Rural Legacy Program? All Rights Reserved. A rural legacy area designation opens up access to additional sources of funding that local governments and land trusts can use to purchase conservation easements from landowners. For general program information, contact the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Service Description: Map service Rural Legacy Areas were established to protect Maryland's best remaining rural landscapes and natural areas through the purchase of land or conservation easements. Containing Maryland’s largest natural hardwood swamp, the Zekiah Rural Legacy Area … Copyright © 2021 NatureServe. As a registered user, you can customize maps, save them, and share them with your friends. The file was compiled by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources using data supplied by Rural Legacy Area sponsors. Moran said Queen Anne’s County saw an additional 2,500 acres set aside for conservation efforts in … Rural Legacy Areas preserve large tracts of undeveloped land for natural resource, agricultural, forestry, and environmental protection uses. The purpose of the Rural Legacy Program is to protect Maryland's best remaining rural landscapes and natural areas through the purchase of land or conservation easements. The liability of the Department of Natural Resources for damage regardless of the form of the action shall not exceed any distribution fees that may have been paid in obtaining Spatial Data. The purpose of the Rural Legacy Program is to protect Maryland's best remaining rural landscapes and natural areas through the purchase of land or conservation easements. Enacted by the General Assembly in 1997, Maryland’s Rural Legacy Program has dedicated over $305.6 million to preserve 86,103 acres of valuable farmland, forests, and natural areas. Gov. The Department of Natural Resources shall not be subject to liability for human error, error due to software conversion, defect, or failure of machines, or any material used in the connection with the machines, including tapes, disks, CD-ROs or DVD-ROs and energy. of Natural Resources to designate a Rural Legacy Area (RLA). Individual Rural Legacy areas are administered by local land trusts. The Rural Legacy Program is one area of funding set aside for conservation by the state. Use constraints: The Department of Natural Resources makes no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the use or appropriateness of Spatial Data, and there are no warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or use. 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